EU Regulator ESMA Urges Nations to Ensure Compliance with Stablecoin Rules Soon

The European Securities and Markets Authority has urged national authorities in the European Union (EU) to ensure that exchanges are no longer making non-compliant stablecoins available for trading within the next two months.

The regulator has requested that the 27 member states in the EU ensure crypto asset service providers (CASPs) are compliant when it comes to its stablecoin rules “no later than the end of Q1 2025,” ESMA said in a statement on Friday.

“In practice, this means that CASPs operating a trading platform for crypto-assets are expected to stop making all crypto-assets that would qualify as ARTs and EMTs but for which the issuer is not authorised in the EU (“non-MiCA compliant ARTs and EMTs” ) available for trading,” ESMA said. ARTs are asset referenced tokens and EMTs are electronic money tokens.

The move would affect stablecoins which are not compliant with EU laws like Tether’s USDT if it were offered to EU clients. Large issuers have already taken steps to try and comply with MiCA. Tether announced in November it was discontinuing its euro stablecoin, EURT. The company has not managed to obtain an e-money license to operate in the EU. Circle obtained an e-money license in July.

Exchanges like Gemini and Coinbase, who are registered in the EU, would have to delist un-authorized stablecoins, according to ESMA’s statement. Coinbase previously announced it would delist any such tokens by last December.

“Given our commitment to compliance, we restricted the provision of services to Retail, Exchange, and Prime Vault customers of Coinbase Europe Limited, Coinbase Germany GmbH, and Coinbase Custody International Limited in connection with stablecoins that do not meet the MiCA requirements beginning on December 13, 2024,“ a spokesperson from Coinbase told CoinDesk on Tuesday.

The exchange “will assess re-enabling services for stablecoins that achieve MiCA compliance on a later date,” the spokesperson said.

CoinDesk reached out to Gemini for a comment.